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Looking for kit/plans plane that's suburb friendly

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SuperDave

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
60
Location
Irving, TX USA
Hello!

Yes, another "which plane" thread... sorry


I live in a Dallas are suburb and houses are relatively close to each other. I, like most of you, have a dream to build my own plane, in my garage.

Since an airplane design is a series of compromises, I am willing to do so when choosing a project. I have my PPL and would like the plane to do the following:

Minimum 150 mph cruise @75%
Two place, enclosed (can’t do open cockpits, wife freezes)
Sport aerobatics capable (6g+ 4g-)
500 lb+ useful load weight
Landing gear, tri or tail dragger, doesn't matter
40+ inch cabin width (I'm tall and wide)

Suburbia Challenges:

Noise-Although I know how to do metalwork, riveting together an entire airplane would probably have the cops at my house daily. I can see if there is SOME riveting, but an entire plane... I don't know. RV-8 leads my list of all-metal birds, but that's 1000's of neighbor-disturbing rivets


Fumes-Dope I know is smelly. As far as fiberglass, is polyester or epoxy resins used on composite planes (epoxy is essentially odorless)? Again, I could probably get away with fumes if only part of the plane is silk/dope or fiberglass, but the entire thing (if poly resin/smelly), I doubt it. If glass planes are made using epoxy-resin, that could work.

Wood-I know woodworking and the sounds and dust from woodworking is probably something I could get away with. Woodworking is a common hobby, so saws would not be a problem. I can vac the dust. But are there any highly successful (meaning more than a few built) all-wood designs out there? GP-4 and Barracuda are out. Too few built and can't find much info on them.

Welding-Gas welding would probably work!

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. I know I’m really limited due to my living in the burbs, but with the right mix of neighbor-disturbing properties I may just pull this off (and stay out of trouble).
 
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